Saturday 15 November 2014

Stash Busting and Self Care .


Recently I attended a Girls Night Out and included were  talks from a McGrath breast care nurse and a lifeline counsellor. The take home message from the counsellor was the importance of self care.
I absolutely agree . Some women equate self care with being selfish. Self care is important at all stages of our lives whether we are students , new mothers , working women etc.
My husband and children sometimes encourage me  to buy new clothes. Like other sewers my interest in shopping has waned although I appreciate the eye candy and potential inspiration. For me though self care involves not buying new clothes but not feeling guilty in getting rid of old ones. I often keep clothes way past their best.  So with this sage self -care  advice fresh in my mind I did some stash busting and sewed up a pair of  new pajama  pants and a  singlet and promptly got rid of  the  old ones before I could change my mind.
I think as sewers we have a fair idea about self care ( unless we are constantly sewing  for others) and it is just another one of the multitude of reasons why sewing is such a lovely hobby .



 Anyway a brief note about the actual sewing. Here is a bad shot of the PJ pants a one seam pant from Vogue 7645 dated 2002 . I used a green /blue cotton plaid from my mother  stashed for several years . I added a ribbon on the front to make it easier to work out which is the front and back but this was entirely unnecessary since I mucked up matching the plaid at the front but it matched perfectly at the back ( another aspect of self-care - not berating yourself about trivia like matching plaids ) .


For the singlet or tank top I used Kwik Sew 2845 dated 1999  which uses only two pattern pieces. The fabric is a thin soft blush coloured cotton interlock also from my mother and also stashed for a long time. My sewing machine did not like this fabric whilst I was making the original  button hole ( to thread the ribbon through ) but I found by adding tear away stabilizer in both the front and the back of the fabric everything went smoothly the second time. Apart from that hiccup the rest of the sewing was easy and enjoyable.  I have never made this pattern before but it certainly will not be the last.



So here`s to daily self -care . Cheers Janine.

9 comments:

  1. I have the same problem getting rid of old stuff....wear it way past its expiration date, because 1) I loved it when I made it and I still love it, even if it doesn't fit so good/look so fresh any more or 2) I don't want to take the time to replace it (it's a basic that gets worn over and over and over) 'cause I got bigger and better things to sew...

    Cute PJs!!!

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  2. The keeping beyond the use by date - well known to me as well - and then there is the stuff kept for the dirty jobs (do we mention those when talking about self care???).

    I agree, it is hard to toss out and treat ourselves well - selfish sewing is very much a self care need of mine. I get quite irritable when I don't have my sewing time - just a daily retreat for a time. Sometimes this is hard for us to do when there are other people's needs to also attend to, but I have learnt it is essential to spend time with recuperative sewing.

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    1. P.S. I like all of your garments pictured - all very nice. Your stash must be quite lovely with all sorts of treasures waiting to be sewn.

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  3. Oh Sarahliz I have lots of dirty job clothes and even they are categorised. They start off as around the house clothes , then progress to gardening clothes and finally become dealing with the sheep clothes. Only after they become wrecked from the sheep do they get discarded!

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  4. I hope you are lounging around in your new pyjama pants and top, and enjoying the relaxation.

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  5. There is nothing nicer than a new pj set, sewn for comfort. Enjoy your pretty pjs Janine.

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  6. Lovely - that top especially looks like my idea of the perfect summer pyjama top. I am guilty of hanging onto pyjamas until they are actually falling apart. A good reminder to us all!

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  7. I have a pair of pyjamas that could best be described as frumpy! The fabric was gifted to me by my mother because she had no use for it! You can probably see my problem right there. Anyway, I recently had a house guest and due to much embarrassment made myself a new pair....yay, I would even wear these new ones to the letterbox should the need arise!

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  8. Throwing out old clothes is very difficult! There always seems to be one more wear in them....
    I like your new pjs, particularly the pretty gathering on the top, that's an appealing step up from the average singlet.

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